Looking at the north bank of Jiangmen Island or the river, you can see nothing but miscellaneous reeds and shrubs and a path leading to the river beach. If it weren't for a few dilapidated straw boats dragged to the river beach, ordinary people would not be able to see anything else.
When passing by this place by boat, I just thought it was a common desert beach in Hecheng and Caocheng.
Lin Fu climbed up the sand embankment that had been gutted by the rain, and saw a dozen thatched shacks behind the bushes, which were the residences of the grassland households here. Most of the grassland households were extremely poor, with only four walls and no money left. That was where the pirate ships passed by.
, and had no interest in going ashore to wash and loot. Lin Fu saw a forest behind the dozen thatched shacks, which was quite large, covering hundreds of acres.
There are many shrubs and scattered trees in the Hecheng pasture area, but there are very few elm and poplar trees. This forest does not look like it is naturally occurring.
Lin Fu stood on the sand embankment, waiting for the flag leader Wang Chengfu to climb up, and asked with a smile: "Dutingyuan is hidden behind the forest, why can't you see the road?"
Wang Chengfu couldn't figure out Lin Fu's purpose. He saw that a cavalryman had already gone behind the forest. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. At this time, he was sober from drinking. He led the way honestly and said: "
There are only a few dozen salt workers in Duting, taking care of the five or six hundred grassland households in the surrounding area. Pirates come and go frequently, so we don’t dare to be too public about it... Several paths are in the woods, just through the woods."
After passing through the woods, it suddenly became much more spacious. Not far to the north is a large yard covering an area of more than 30 acres. There is a circle of paths along the outer wall of the yard. The gate of the courtyard faces north, and there is a road to the north.
The dirt road extends toward both sides of the southeast. The rainy season has just passed, and even the main official road in Chongzhou County was severely damaged during the rainy season and needs to be refilled with soil and compacted. However, this dirt road looks very neat.
It’s not appropriate to talk about a yard. The yard area of 30 acres of land is already very large. The large-scale enclosed houses on Xisha Island that can accommodate 80 to 100 households are about this size. The yard is square, with hundreds of people on one side.
It is one step wide, and the courtyard wall is made of blue bricks. It is very tall, almost more than ten feet high when viewed from a distance. In addition to the guard tower at the gate, there is also a turret on each of the four corners. It cannot be said that it is inappropriate to call it a Wuzhai.
I had seen reports from sentry detectives before that Jiangmen Duting was not a simple place. After seeing it with my own eyes, I realized that it was really not simple. The shabby straw boats and ragged men I saw on the river beach just now were probably
It was just an illusion used to confuse the pirates. In fact, if the pirates landed from there, even if the forked roads were correct, they would still have to go through the forest more than two miles deep before they could see the Jiangmen Dutingyuan.
"This Duting is well managed by you. I went to Hecheng Division to see it. Yantie Division has four to five hundred troops stationed there. Hecheng Division is only so large, and it may not be as strict as here," Lin
Fu followed Wang Chengfu who was walking in front and said, "In this Duting, how many salt pods are there, how many grassland households are in charge, and how big is the grassland area under its jurisdiction..."
"There are sixty people in Yanding, starting from Wang Tianyi, the captain of the capital, and there are no officials. In the past few days, except for a small group of people who went to Hecheng Division with the captain of the capital, everyone else is here. Caochang households live relatively scattered.
There are 526 households, and each year they collect 300,000 hay from the land of 28 miles vertically and 22 miles horizontally and transport it to the salt field in the north..." Wang Chengfu transferred the grassland under the jurisdiction of Duting, Jiangmen.
As for the grassland households and salt farmers, they truthfully reported the situation to Lin Fu. These data were recorded by Hecheng Division, and there was no need to hide them.
Lin Fu frowned, making it hard to tell whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied with Wang Chengfu's answer.
The area of Hecheng grassland is not necessarily smaller than that of Chongzhou County, but the number of grassland households registered in Hecheng Division is less than 11 Dingkou of Chongzhou County, and in addition there are a thousand salt farms. The entire Salt and Iron Division has almost 1,000 salt farms.
There are more than 20,000 people. Of course, outsiders don't know how many of them are short-term.
The pasture land under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen Duting is 28 miles long and 22 miles wide. Such a large area of land is not much smaller than Xisha Island. In Chongzhou County, it can cultivate almost 112,000 acres of grain fields, which can raise five people.
Six thousand households. In order to meet the needs of burning grass in the salt field, such a large area of land has been abandoned and can only be planted with grass. It is strictly prohibited to cultivate it into grain fields. Each year, the five to six hundred grassland households under its jurisdiction are forced to provide thirty or forty to the salt field in the north.
Thousands of hay.
Not to mention anything else about this land, as long as the reeds growing on riverbanks, riverbanks and sandbanks are harvested, three to four hundred thousand hay can be harvested every year. For the grassland farmers who have lived here for generations, harvesting enough is enough every year.
It is not a difficult task to transport the hay. The most difficult thing is to transport the hay to the salt field four to five hundred miles away. The journey is difficult and dangerous, and if anything goes wrong, the family will be destroyed.
But here in Duting, Jiangmen, I can’t tell how hard it is.
Zhao Hu had already sent soldiers to take over the defense here and strengthened the vigilance. Lin Fu walked into the capital courtyard and passed the gate of the camp. He saw that the courtyard wall made of blue bricks was almost eight or nine feet thick, so he wanted to block the gate.
It's really impossible for ordinary pirates to break in.
When you walk into the courtyard gate, you will see a large drying yard with two or three acres of land. In addition to the official hall in the middle, there are fifty or sixty courtyards around it, which means that there are fifty or sixty single-family houses in the large yard.
There is usually no official business to talk about, so I saw three or five children playing in the drying yard in front of the public affairs hall, and some chickens, ducks and geese were walking around in the drying yard.
Lin Fu walked to the wooden trough where the chickens were kept in the east of the drying yard, grabbed a handful of chicken food, and mixed it with nearly half of the grain. It seems that the grain fields here were cultivated privately, and they were not only extravagant to use the grain to make wine, but also had surplus grain to feed the poultry. Look
He glanced at Wang Chengfu, said nothing, and put the chicken food in his hand back into the trough.
Hecheng Caochang Division under the Weiyang Salt and Iron Division also has 22 capital pavilions. When Lin Fu inspected the Yunyan River in mid-August, he went to see the three capital pavilions on both sides of the Yunyan River. It is said that the salt transportation in the north
The river transportation on both sides of the river is more convenient, but the three capital pavilions are in a dilapidated state. Not to mention the walls built with burnt blue bricks, the adobe walls have not been repaired for several years. The five or six barracks are simple, and the public affairs office is still
The roof is covered with thatch and it is very shabby. Except for the officers such as Dutou and Qitou who have fat heads and big ears, the grassland households and salt workers live in very poverty, far less affluent than those in Jiangmen.
Wang Chengfu stood aside and watched Lin Fu's actions, thinking that he was born in a noble family, abandoned his writing and joined the army, went north to serve as king, and fought in Yannan. He became famous in one fell swoop, was awarded officials and titles, and was stationed in Chongzhou. He was already considered a hero. Such a figure is so special.
He also had the time to observe details such as the feed in the chicken trough. It would be difficult to hide anything from his eyes.
"It seems that you are running this place really well!" Lin Fu clapped his hands and did not rush into the public affairs hall. He stood on the sunbathing field that could also be used as a school ground, looked at this dock where soldiers and civilians mixed, and said with emotion.
, "I have heard of Wang Tianyi. I heard that he beat his boss when he was a military attache in Hecheng Division in his early years, and then he came here. He is an illiterate martial artist. I guess he doesn't have much business ideas. Jiangmen is not.
The pavilion is running smoothly, with grain to make wine and chickens to raise. I wonder who has the most credit?"
Lin Fu frowned slightly and thought to himself that even if he cultivated grain fields privately and only relied on five or six hundred grassland households to govern the people, he wouldn't be able to do it on such a large scale here. The dirt road to the north of Yuanmen was quite neatly paved.
, it must have cost a lot of manpower and material resources. He knew that there were stranded households here privately cultivating grain fields, but it was difficult for outsiders to figure out the specific number of people. He stared at Wang Chengfu and asked, trying to find out from him.
Tell the truth from your mouth.
"It is indeed Wang Dutou's credit," Wang Chengfu said. "Other than Wang Dutou, who can be the master of Jiangmen?"
Wang Chengfu knew that the prison city was going to be built at the mouth of the Chongzhou River, and the court officially announced it at the end of July. However, there has been no action on the Chongzhou side until now. He suspected that Lin Fu was patrolling the river to build the prison city.
However, the river mouth sandbank and sand island belong to Chongzhou. On the shore is the jurisdiction of Hecheng Grassland Division, which belongs to Weiyang Salt and Iron Division. Could it be that Lin Fu has set his sights on Jiangmen? Thinking of this, Wang Chengfu felt a headache and his arms
Unable to twist his thigh, Lin Fu wanted to invade this land. It was supposed that if he brought the matter up and let the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate know about it, Lin Fu's plan would be defeated.
There was nothing that could stop Lin Fu from taking revenge afterwards.
Lin Fu didn't say anything else. Zhao Hu came over and said, "There are two horses in the courtyard of the Public Affairs Office. They seem to have come from a long way. There should be outsiders. Do you want to search them?"
The Jinghai Metropolitan Supervisor Department still has no control over the affairs of Hecheng Grassland, but if they really want to send people to search, they will not dare to stop it.
Lin Fu walked to the gate of the courtyard of the Public Affairs Office and saw two skinny horses in the stables. He asked Wang Chengfu: "Is there a guest in Jiangmen?"
"A master and a servant were traveling across the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. When they passed by Jiangmen, I was brave enough to let them stay down for a few glasses of water and wine," Wang Chengfu said.
"Oh?" Lin Fu stared at Wang Chengfu suspiciously. At this time, the war was chaotic. Although Liu An'er's troops were expelled from Haozhou, there were still many small groups of bandits. Who would be interested in traveling to the Jianghuai River and even running to Hecheng grassland?
Come for a walk?
"Master Lin, why don't you come to Wuxian?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Lin Fu turned around and looked around. Unexpectedly, Song Bo, a descendant of the Song family who had met several times in Jinan, walked out of the lobby of the official hall and stood in the corridor to bow and greet him.
"It turns out that Brother Song Bo is here. I thought Brother Song had gone back to An Yongtai in Jin Dynasty. Why are you interested in wandering in a wilderness like Hecheng Grassland?" Lin Fu said while looking at Wang Chengfu.
At a glance, it was not difficult for him to guess that Song Bo had the intention of spying on Jianghuai for the eight surnames of East Fujian. However, Song Bo was stranded in Jiangmen and even drank and talked with this Wang Chengfu in the house in the afternoon. It seemed that this Wang Chengfu, who was an assassin and exiled to the army,